Guitar Hero 5 Stand Alone Software (Game only)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $29.45
Today's Bonus: 2% Off

I rented this game from Blockbuster before purchasing because I wanted to be 100% sure that it was compatible with my Rock Band guitars and mic, as well as the ION drums. The good news is that the game works 100% on my PS3 with all my existing equipment!

Pros: Lots of new songs to play, new features such as party play let you jump in & out (very nice) and multiple instrument play (ex: 4 guitars).

Cons: The Bass Drum indicator is gray, unlike Rock Band, which is orange. It's difficult to see because the normal measure separators are also gray; the bass drum ones are only slightly thicker. My son typically scores in the high 90's on Expert and is totally turned off by this.

Overall, this game is a hit and should provide many hours of rocking!

Click Here to Read More Reviews >>

The fact that there's no real story to this game, and that all songs are unlocked from the beginning, basically makes this a massive track pack for GH-World Tour.

So, what do you get from this game?

80+ songs

Ability to have multiple people playing vocals, guitars, bass, and/or drums (which is a first). In effect, you get the best of Karaoke Revolution and GH-World Tour.

If you order before October 1, 2009, the free GH-Van Halen (via mail-in/internet offer, no shipping fees, so only thing you pay is that one first class postage for the form, sticker, and receipt that you have to send in), good for another 40+ songs.

What don't you get?

Rock Band's great format of playing different venues in different cities around the world, with a better character design feature (but that's a bit subjective!!!)

So, if you consider this to be mostly a big track pack, and especially if you get to take advantage of the free GH-Van Halen offer, this is a great deal.

Now, with regard to the gameplay and the changes from previous versions of GH, the big plus for me is the immediate availability of all songs. I play GH mostly as a party game, so having all the songs from the outset is great. Also having the option to have multiple vocals and multiple guitars and bass is great (I have over 4 mics and over 4 guitar controllers from all the other GH and RB games I've bought over the years), because this means people get to play what they WANT to play, not what positions are left over. A shame we don't have multiple drum sets (we have one GH-WT and one RB drum set each), but that's okay, since that's the least favorite instrument, as well as the most tiring, so people tend to trade off the use of that instrument.

So, with all this, what would have made this a 5 star product in my opinion? Better characters and better modification of characters. For one thing, the characters all look white, all the girls are skinny. If you're not white, and you don't fit those modes, you can't change accordingly. If they had an easier medium difficulty (but using 4 frets) for the guitar/bass, that would be nice.

Overall, I strongly recommend this item, especially if you can take advantage of the free GH-Van Halen offer. In terms of fun, I'd give this 4 stars. In terms of value, definitely 5 stars.

Buy Guitar Hero 5 Stand Alone Software (Game only) Now

I am a huge fan of this franchise, so when this game came out, I had to have it. Prior to actually playing the game, I had only seen partial notes on what the setlist would be, and what I saw was fair, but now that I have played the game enough, I find most of the tracks unknown to me from bands that I don't know, or less than popular tracks from the bands I do know. I like the idea of giving fledgling bands a start on this format, and also for broadening the older bands audience by going into the deeper cuts, but part of my facination with this game was to be able to play popular songs and escape into the story of being on stage with band playing the songs we know. I do give the game folks kudos for tracks like "Du Hast" by Rammstein, and "Sweating Bullets" by Megadeth, as well as resonable selections by The Police, Screaming Trees, and Peter Frampton, but most of the other tracks just don't connect for me. The fun factor is here with the new "Party mode" where you can have 2 guitarists and 2 bassists if you wish, or 3 vocals and 1 drummer, and folks can jump in and out, but overall this game just doesn't stand out and almost feels stale. Overall, the setlist flow of GHIII, World Tour, and even Smash hits was better. I would recommend starting with the older games before graduating to this version.

Read Best Reviews of Guitar Hero 5 Stand Alone Software (Game only) Here

This is the best one in the series yet. A lot of complaints again about the instruments. I just ordered the game because I already have all the instruments i need. I never had any problems with the drums or guitars (other than I wish they made a left handed guitar so the buttons and whammy bar were flipped). The party mode is great. No need to unlock songs. No failing. Just fun. Also no more earning money to get things which is nice. When playing career mode you have different individual challenges for each song: get so many points, or a note string so long, or keep you multiplier at +4 for so long, or hit sustains or chords, or even hit so many notes only strumming up or alternating. There are also group goals such as get so many points or have an avg. multiplier. These all add an extra challenge to playing the songs. The ability to play with any combination of instruments is a good idea. On top of all these improvements the graphics (which to me are not important) are greatly improved. It is good to see that they are not just cranking out games but are still improving on this genre and I look forward to even more improvements with others.

Want Guitar Hero 5 Stand Alone Software (Game only) Discount?

Let me preface this by saying that I started out as a very anti-Rock Band gamer, as I didn't think that a family oriented music game would work as well as Guitar Hero. And at first, I didn't see any compelling reasons to change. Rock Band 1 was ok, but it wasn't as fun or versatile as GH was. As time went by, however, the momentum shifted for me due to a very simple reason: DLC. While GH remained a better game (gameplay and character customization wise), there came a a tipping point with Rock Band 2 where the sheer number of playable tracks turned the tide for me. GH was simply over way too fast, and RB kept on chugging with weekly song updates.

I took a break from GH after World Tour, but decided to give it another shot with GH5. For the first few nights, it was great. Snappy graphics, great gameplay, some outstanding tracks...and then, I beat the game. Just like that, the magic was over. Where Rock Band has a number of great game options that let you extend the experience, GH5 just....ends. It's a shame, too, because it's without doubt the best version so far and in many ways it's superior to RB.

But once again, it's the content.

Rock Band is just too far ahead of Guitar Hero is getting music out, and unless that imbalance coupled with more game options is fixed, I just can't see GH going on much longer. Great example of the gameplay difference is the way the venues are handled. GH has one venue, with one set of tracks to be played. Rock Band, by comparison, offers anywhere from 3 to 5 locations PER VENUE and each has 3 7 challenges within. GH just can't win against that.

In fairness, GH plays better. The difficulty is more balanced in challenging you, and the game is not afraid to force you to improve your play to advance, which is a good thing. The graphics are also superior, and the licensed singers look and play great. The customization is far and away better, with a true range of options to make your character a good representation of you. Some of the venues have fantastic design, and they actually change as you play more songs in them.

The above good stuff, though, is not enough. Once I beat this game, I immediately started looking to trade it in. I guess that's the best review summary I can give for it.